Lieberman

Lab Info:

Prof. Tami Lieberman trained in molecular biology and mathematics at Northwestern University. She then moved to Harvard University, where she completed a PhD in Systems Biology in Roy Kishony’s laboratory. In the Kishony lab, Dr. Lieberman studied bacterial evolution within individual human infections at the whole-genome level and designed new experimental tools for tracking the evolution of antibiotic resistance. She then moved to MIT as a postdoc in Eric Alm’s lab, where she applied the genomic tools developed during her PhD to the study of the commensal bacteria. Dr. Lieberman joined the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science and the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at MIT in 2018 as an Assistant Professor.

The Lieberman Lab is uncovering the causes and consequences of bacterial colonization in the microbiome. Rational microbial-based therapies have great promise for treating illness and promoting wellness. However, it remains incredibly difficult to design such therapies, as we cannot predict which bacterial strains have the potential to stably colonize an individual. Dr. Lieberman’s experimental and computational group seeks to close this knowledge gap, developing a mechanistic understanding of how individual species and strains behave in the human microbiome—including the selective pressures they face, their niche ranges and survival strategies, and the degree to which they adapt to individual microbiomes. The Lieberman Lab is also conducting studies on how strain-level variation impacts the immune response to commensals.

Dr. Lieberman’s research areas include Genomics, Human Microbiome, Infectious Diseases, Adaptive Immune Response, Microbial Systems, Computational Modeling, and Systems Biology. More information can be found on her lab website.